The Complete Guide to Preserving Morel Mushrooms

Preserving the morel mushroom is wonderful problem to have, however, preserving it successfully is the key. The Great Morel is about to let you know just how easy it is to preserve your morels successfully and to enjoy your prize find long after the season has ended.

 

For many, finding enough morels for a small meal or two is the Cookie sheet of morelshighlight of the season, yet there are others who are more fortunate. Whether you stumbled upon the Mother-Lode, or just had a few really good days out in the woods, you are going to need a way to stash your morels for later consumption.

 

So let’s talk a little bit about preserving the morel.

 

For the seasoned morel hunters who have chalked up years of experience in the woods, you surely have a personal tried-and-true favorite technique for preserving your haul already. For those who may be delving into the whole preserving process for the first time, this article will be a great help. Make sure you hit the Preserving page once you are done with this article where you can find proven morel hunter ideas and some of the great suggestions turned into The Great Morel over the last 20 years.

 

Here is a little known fact – the morel – if handled correctly after harvesting is a durable fungi just waiting to be stashed away for later consumption. When done properly, the texture and flavor can be maintained as if they were freshly picked. To quote the lyrics from a Phish song called The Lizards, you are like “Rutherford the Brave and he was on a quest to save his people from the fate that lay before them”. Think of it as if you are on a quest to save the great morel from the fate that lay before them…until a later date that is.

 

Let’s start off with what may be the simplest and most well-known technique – drying. Drying morels can be done in several ways and we’ll talk briefly about each of these and highlight the pros and con, but drying morels can be done in several ways but basically it is:

We’ll talk briefly about each of these and highlight the pros and cons. As we go through these techniques keep in mind – salt is the enemy of preserving the morel! Always avoid the salt no matter which technique you choose.

 

Air Dried Naturally

When we talk about drying morels, the primary object is to let the morel dry naturally from its harvested state. Depending on the air drying method, you may or may not want to slice your morels, but do make sure you clean the stem of any dirt, and shake out any bugs taking refuge. In other words – if you rinse – do not soak. Just rinse, de-bug and pat dry to remove as much moisture as possible.

 

One of the most common drying techniques and probably the easiest is the string dry method. Think of it like stringing popcorn for Christmas tree decorations. You can use twine, string, dental floss, or similar material and just feed the morels on to the string. If you opt use this method, do not slice your morels, and also keep the morels evenly spaced so they are not touching. You can then hang them in a warm, but very dry place. Depending on the temperature and humidity, you could be looking at upwards of two to three days or longer for the natural air drying to complete. The key here is dry – as in low humidity dry. Think of it as line drying your clothes on a clothes line and allowing the morel to lose all of its moisture.

 

Oven and Other Drying

Other ideas are laying your morels on a screen, a table, or similar contraption. Using an oven is an option as well, but extreme care should be taken if oven drying indoors. The goal here is to allow the morel to dry as naturally as possible, so whatever option you use just insure they are drying and you monitor the humidity levels. If you attempt the screen drying method, remember to allow good air flow throughout the entire drying process. So if you lay your screen frame on a table, make sure you have the morels raised off the table. Use a bricks or wood to raise your drying frames off the table to allow airflow.

 

You can also search on line for solar food drying methods and plans if you would like to build something a bit fancier. These can also double for drying vegetables and nuts.
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the object here is a process of slow removal of moisture.

 

Let’s get a little more in-depth about the oven drying process– a relatively simple technique. When attempting to dry your morels using an oven, set the temperature at around 130-140 degrees and lay your morels out evenly on cookie sheets or on the oven racks so they are not touching. You can load your oven up with multiple trays or racks, just make sure you allow room for air movement and rotate them throughout the process every hour or two. Expect the oven drying process to take anywhere from 8 to 12 hours. Much of this will depend on the size of the morels. Slicing in quarters or halving the morels will reduce the time as well. Remember to monitor the temperature closely and do not allow your precious morels to bake – the object here is a process of slow removal of moisture.

 

Again, The Great Morel cautions you when using this technique and do not ever leave your oven unattended especially with small children around.

 

If you opt to try using the natural solar method, you really need to make sure you have a good couple days of warm sun in the forecast. You can lay them on screens or homemade drying racks. Spacing is key again, allow both air flow and the warm sun to assist in the drying process. Tip: cover or move inside at night to avoid the dew. Give your morels a good couple days in the sun and that should do it.

As Dave in Iowa wrote in back in 2003, “One of the 23,000,000 experts on the subject told us to lay out some Window screens (we used hardware cloth stretched between two 2×4’s) on the deck. Spread the mushrooms out whole and uncleaned in the direct sunlight for the day, or until dry…Worked Great! They were completely dry in about 6-7 hrs. It was a sunny, 74 degree day with a light breeze. We were told to store them in a paper sack.”

Dehydrating

The dehydrating technique is another common method for those who have a dehydrating machine. Begin the process similar as the air dry – clean the dirt and bugs, pat dry if you have rinsed, and get your dehydrator ready. The only exception is you may choose slice your morels and that is nothing more than a personal preference. The Great Morel suggests a temperature setting of about 125F on your dehydrating machine. Just leave them in there about five to 8 hours and remember to rotate the trays every couple hours. Much of the timing depends on the size of your morels, the meatier the morel, the longer it will take.

 

A note from a Seasoned Morel Hunter on the Preserving page on using dehydrators …
” Dehydrators will produce either good or disastrous results. If it’s a commercial quality dehydrator, results will be excellent. The cheap plastic things with light bulbs will produce too much humidity and ruin the morels.”

 

As with all of the drying techniques mentioned above, your morels should get a bit crispy or not quite a crunchy hardness when done. Crunchy hard as in moisture free, so if they are not brittle to the touch just leave them and keep checking until they are.

Packaging and Storage of Dried Morels

Once “Operation Drying” is complete, there is one final and critical step of storing your morels. The packaging – which is as critical as the air drying processes mentioned above. It is crucial your morels are moisture free. Yes, that has been mentioned several times already, but it is so important and will make a difference in good morels or bad morels when you re-hydrate them. As stated earlier, just know your morels will shrink into nothing and yes, they will turn hard and should be almost crunchy. That is the end expectation – dry, hard, moisture free, shrunken morels.

 

Seal them in an airtight container and throw them in a dry storage area

 

So what to do now? There are several common means of packaging. Seal them in an airtight container and throw them in a dry storage area. If you have a commercial vacuum sealer then bust it out and do your thing. Some other suggestions are to put in Mason jars and just make sure you check the jar the next day to make sure there is not any moisture on the inside of the jar. If so – it is time for a “do-over”. Any moisture in your packaging/containers will be your enemy, causing the risk of mold and/or bacteria, and a wasted batch of morels. Paper sacks are another common option.
They will keep for a long time as long as you remember one key thing – keep them dry! The key to longevity in storage is simply this – dry, dry, dry, dry…did we say dry?

 

Some shroomers suggest storing in a dark place and even putting your dried morels in the freezer.

 

The Con to the Drying Process

The con to the drying method is if you do not keep them dry in storage then you just wasted morels, and that may be looked upon as crime in some Shroomer’s eyes. If not a crime…it will be a reason to cry.

 

In closing, there are many Shroomer’s who believe the drying process (regardless of technique) allows the morel to hold true to its texture and flavor when it comes time to use them. So when done correctly you won’t be disappointed with the end results.

 

Here are some words of wisdom provided by The Colorado State University Extension Services on drying can be found here at their website. https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/drying-vegetables-9-308/ Granted they discuss drying of vegetables but the process is much the same and they have some good precautionary tips.